Telephone box catch



Oct. 5, 1965 RANEY 3,209,994

TELEPHONE BOX CATCH Filed April 22, 1963 659/854 5, QAA/EY INVENTOR.

United States Patent 3,209,994 TELEPHONE BOX CATCH Gerrel B. Raney, Odessa, Tex., assignor to RSR Manufacturing Company, Odessa, Tex., a corporation of Texas Filed Apr. 22, 1963, Ser. No. 274,634 1 Claim. (Cl. 232-1) This invention pertains to coin boxes of pay telephones and more particularly to a catch to make them more difficult to open by unauthorized persons.

Pay telephones are often placed in remote places. I.e. oftentimes a pay telephone is placed outside a business establishment in a small shelter. This has an extreme convenience for persons wishing to make calls, but it also exposes the telephone to possible thieves in the nighttime. There are basically two Ways in which a robber might open the door to obtain the money from the coin box. One is that .a skillful person might pick the lock. Another manner of entrance is to disable the lock by shooting. By shooting, it is meant that a small calibre bullet is shot through the keyhole, thus stripping out the catch mechanism by which the bolt is held in place. Thereafter the bolt is pulled down and the coin box door opened.

I have invented an auxiliary catch which prevents access to the coin box in either of these cases. According to my invention, in addition to opening the lock to the coin box door, it is necessary also to open the upper cover of the telephone and to trip an additional catch on the coin box door.

I have found that this is effective in reducing robberies. Not only is it necessary for two locks to be opened (therefore doubling the time and effort of thieves), but also it is necessary to lift the upper cover of the telephone to gain access to the catch. Lifting the upper cover of the telephone is an obvious breaking into the telephone. Le. a person can fake making a telephone call while working to pick the lock of the coin box door or pulling the bolt to the coin box door after it has been shot. However, a person cannot very well have the upper cover of the telephone raised and give the appearance to a passerby of simply making a telephone call. To explain further, according to present practice, a robber is able to break into the coin boxes almost withoutdetection in a crowded place, because all that is necessary is to open the coin box door. However, they are greatly deterred from opening the upper cover to the telephone mechanism because this is an activity which cannot be masked from the eyes of the casual passer-by. Furthermore, if the upper cover lock is opened by shooting this oftentimes results in a disruption of the telephone circuits which may be indicated to the personnel at the central offices of the telephone operating company.

An object of this invention is to make it more difficult for unauthorized persons to open telephone boxes.

Another object is to make it more obvious to casual observers that a telephone coin box is being robbed.

Another object is to achieve the above without materially increasing the difliculty of access to the coin box by authorized personnel.

A further object is to achieve the above with a device that is easy to install by unskilled people not requiring the use of any power equipment.

Still further objects are to achieve the above with a device that is sturdy, compact, durable, simple, and reliable, yet inexpensive and easy to manufacture and operate.

The specific nature of the invention as well as other objects, uses, and advantages thereof will clearly appear from the following description and from the accompanying drawing, the different views of which are not necessarily to the same scale, in which:

Patented Oct. 5, 1965 FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a pay telephone illustrating the general arrangement of the parts.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the lower case of the telephone showing the coin box door with my special latch attached thereto, taken on plane 2-2 of FIG. 3.

FIG. 3 is a rear perspective of the lower case of the telephone showing my invention, with parts removed for clarity.

As may be seen in the FIG. 1, the numeral 10 indicates generally a pay telephone. As is well known, to place a call coins are inserted in the telephone and these coins drop into a box (not shown here). Access to the box is obtained through door 12 which is secured in the closed position, by a lock mechanism 14. The lock mechanism 14 is held to the door 12 by screws 15. The lock mechanism is opened by a key through keyhole 16. The manipulation of the key in the keyhole 16 withdraws bolt 18 to permit door 12 to swing outward and downward. When the door 12 is opened, the coin box which is immediately behind it may be removed through the opening of the door 12. The telephone electrical circuits are enclosed behind upper cover 20 which is secured by a lock which has keyhole 22. There is a coin box cover 24 which separates the lower case 26 of the pay telephone 10 from the upper portion covered by the upper cover 20. This cover 24 has an opening 28 therein for the bolt of the upper cover lock.

All that has been described before is standard, conventional equipment as found on commercial pay telephones in common use at the present time. As stated before, one way of gaining entry into the coin box is to shoot through the keyhole 16 with a small calibre bullet. The projectile passing though the lock 14 so that the bolt 18 may be released and pulled down to open the door 12 giving access to the coin box.

According to my invention an auxiliary catch 30 is attached behind the door 12 by the existing screws 15. The auxiliary catch 30 has cylindrical tube 32 which is attached to flange 34. The flange 34 has two holes through which the screws 15 pass to attach it to the door of the box 12. Bolt 36 is telescoped within the tube 32 and biased by spring 38 upward. Pin 49 on the bolt 36 works in slot 42 in the tube 32 to maintain the orientation of the bolt 36 and restrain its movement. The head of the bolt has bevel 44 on the back side so that when the door is closed the bolt 36 is forced downward by the bevel 44 so that the catch engages the inside of the lower case automatically. The forward side of the head has bevel 46. Therefore, any movement of the door 12 causes the catch 30 to tighten. I.e. as the bolt 36 moves upward, the bevel 46 tends to hold the bolt 36 tighter.

If the upper cover 20 is closed, there is no access to the auxiliary catch 30 and the door 12 may not be opened even though the bolt 18 is removed. However, if the cover 20 is lifted, access to the latch 30 may be had through opening 28. A curved pick may be inserted through the opening 28 to press against the bevel 44 to push the bolt 36 downward permitting the door 12 to be opened. If desired, an additional hole 48 may be drilled through the lower case 26 and the cover 24 so that a straight pin-like pick may be inserted through the hole 48 to strike against the bevel 44 to depress the bolt 36.

Therefore, it may be seen that I have provided a simple, economical catch 30 which may be installed on existing telephones. If the hole 48 is not drilled in the case, the installation of the catch 30 does not require the use of any power tools, but the only installation labor necessary is the removal of the two screws 15, the application of the catch 39, and the replacement of the two screws 15.

It will be apparent that the embodiment shown is only exemplary and that various modifications can be made in construction, materials, and arrangement Within the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claim.

I claim as my invention:

In a pay telephone having (a) a lower case,

(b) an upper cover,

(c) the upper cover locked over the top of the lower case,

((1) a door on the lower case, and

(e) a lock means on vthe door for locking the door closed; the improvement comprising in combination:

(f) a cylindrical tube (g) fastened to the door,

(h) a bolt (i) telescoped within the tube,

(i) a spring (k) within the tube biasing the bolt from the tube,

(1) a slot in the tube,

(in) a pin on the bolt within the slot, thus restraining the movement of the bolt,

(n) a head on the bolt,

(0) the head having bevels on two surfaces thereof,

(p) one beveled surface contacting the inside of the lower case to hold the door closed, and

(q) said top of the lower case having an opening therein in vertical alignment with the other bevel of said bolt whereby, upon removal of the upper cover, the catch may be disengaged from the lower case.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 419,891 1/90 Schade et a1. 292-175 420,265 1/90 Bricker 232-42 1,190,985 7/16 Crawford 23212 2,502,999 4/50 Shann 2321.4 2,884,188 4/59 Grant et al. 232-7 FRANK B. SHERRY, Primary Examiner. 

